Contrivance
by aboxofbears
Summary: Placed with a new family after a childhood spent in foster care, Rose once more struggles to determine her status and that of those around her. But when her foster brother opens his heart to her, she has to work against all she's ever built to trust in him, and let him in.
1. Chapter 1

_A R/D I decided to write this evening. The chapter is all over the place, as my first chapters usually are, with no set perspective and a whole bunch of useless words thrown into sentences to not only make me sound smarter, but to bring up the word count. I need to stop with these pathetically short chapters._

_Chapter two has two different endings: option one and option two. I'm not writing what they entitle, but I'd love for you to pick one or the other so I know how to write the chapter. Choose what's in your heart._

* * *

_"Let her come to you."_

Alberta's earlier explanation was present in the hesitant manor Olena held out her arm. A small dimple pinched at her cheek, growing larger as her smile grew strained.

Rose glanced over her shoulder, seeking her own pale face in the reflection of the black car. It was a blur; two eyes and a hint of a nose. Her features were real and they were her own, and so utterly human. So why, she wondered, did they have to treat her as if she were anything but?

Alberta's bony fingers wrapped around her elbow.

"I'm sorry I can't stay while you two get acquainted," she said, perhaps to Olena, perhaps to Rose. "My son has a baseball game tonight, and I don't like driving in the dark. Everything should go smoothly, just act as we discussed."

The 'let her come to you' part so obviously aimed at Olena, Rose shifted her gaze from her curls to her temporary mother. She clutched Rose's only suitcase in her hands, her warm welcome no longer extended.

"I will," she said, nodding solemnly at the case worker. "I'll wait."

"Marvellous," Alberta breathed. She withdrew her restraining hand and pat at Rose's back, her palm stealthily avoiding the scratches marring the girl's skin.

"I really hope this one works out for you, Rose," she whispered. "You have my number. You call me if you need me."

Rose didn't bat an eyelash.

Alberta sighed, and piled herself and her empty promises into the coupe. Olena watched on, waving a goodbye as the car hummed to a start and slowly pulled away. Only when the faint thrum of the engine gave way to complete silence did she finally glance over at Rose.

The girl puffed her cheeks out and dropped her eyes to the pavement.

"Hi," she said, sighing as her gaze lifted. "I'm Rose."

Olena's eyes met her own.

"I know," she said. "We've waited a very long time to meet you."

* * *

A little boy had been sent to retrieve her just short of six p.m, and after introducing himself as Paul, 'the man of the house', he'd pointed her in the direction of the bathroom and explained to her the table rule of washing up before supper. He then supervised, pulling faces at her when her back was turned.

"Soya says you're 'bushka Lena's charity case," the boy said as he lead her down the hall. "I said I didn't think so, because you don't look like the people on the fridge."

Rose ignored the jab, and Paul continued to talk.

"Mama told me you can be my show and tell at school. She said that you weren't allowed to come, though, because Vika was already taking you for show and tell at her school."

He paused at the top of the stairs, and gestured to the rail.

"Can you slide down like Vika does? I can, but Mama won't let me. 'Mitri always lets me when Mama's not here, though."

Rose just started down the steps.

"Soya says that you're mute," Paul said. "She said that that's when people can't talk. Is that why you can't talk? Because you're mute?"

"I can talk," Rose said, glancing back to grin at the boy. "I just don't have anything to talk about."

"You can talk about why you don't have parents," Paul suggested as he skipped down the last few steps. "A boy at my school doesn't have any parents, because he was mean to his sister. I'm never mean to my sister."

He took the lead again as he spoke, and Rose followed him down another long hallway.

"I don't know why I don't have parents," she said.

"Are you sad about it?"

Rose shook her head, though the boy had his back to her.

"No," she said. "I don't know what parents are. How can I miss something I don't know?"

"It's easy," said Paul. "Soya's old cat is dead, and I never knew him. But I still miss him because lots of my friends have cats."

"It's different."

Paul turned into a glass encased dining room, stopping in the doorway to peer back at Rose.

"I don't think so," he said, before trotting off to seat himself at the table.


	2. Chapter 2

"Oh, Rose!" Olena exclaimed as she danced over to the dining table like Mary Poppins, two stacks of plates balanced delicately on the palms of her hands. "Paul got you, good! Did you wash up?"

Rose glanced back at the lady, reluctantly peeling her gaze from the horizon, sleeping on the other side of the glass window wall.

"Yes," she said. She counted out the plates Olena lay on the table, and then the forks, knives and spoons. Eight dishes, 24 pieces of cutlery. "Will you have guests for supper?"

Olena shook her head and smiled. "No, my dear. My son and daughter are dining with us tonight. They'll be pleased to finally meet you."

Rose attempted a smile, and turned back to the window. "I can't wait to meet them," she murmured, though she wasn't fooling anyone, least of all herself.

* * *

"Can you pass the peas, please," Sonya said, from her throne at the end of the table. Sonya, Rose had learned, was bitter, and self-righteous and closed minded- qualities that each foster parent passed had possessed, as had a majority of the girls in the homes. And Sonya was so unwelcoming, speaking not a word to Rose but the child of the house, surely with the knowledge that it would get back to Rose again. And it did.

"Hey," Sonya yapped. "_Rosie_. The peas, please."

Rose glanced up from her plate, and met Sonya's eyes. Big, round and brown, the eyes of the other Belikova's.

Alienating.

"Rose," Rose glared, as the slam of a front door sounded down the hall. "I don't like Rosie."

Sonya's jaw locked, and when she spoke, her words were laced with superiority.

"Fine then, _Rose_. There's no need to look so hostile. After all, you are a _guest_ in _our_ home- however was I supposed to know what name you preferred?"

Rose exhaled sharply and dropped her folk.

"Thank you for dinner, Olena," she said, ignoring the giants that now stood in the doorway- the son and daughter, possibly. "I'm not hungry."

Sonya, oblivious to the tense silence around the table, hurried to her feet as Rose did.

"So you're not going to eat the dinner my mother made for you, now? Boy, you _really_ know how to outstay your welcome."

Rose grimaced, and tried to ignore Olena's apologetic eyes as she collected her cutlery together on her plate.

It was merely a whisper, but it was loud enough for Rose to hear as she shoved past the giants in the doorway.

_"Ungrateful brat." _

And Sonya hadn't been the one to say it.

* * *

_Thank you to the two reviewers of chapter one! _

_If you're sweet and review chapter two then Dimitri will introduce himself in chapter three._

_I don't own the characters, only the plot. And the dialogue etc._

_(:_


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